Fixer-upper picked clean after online ad scam

Sunday

Jan 31, 2010 at 12:01 AMJan 31, 2010 at 10:44 AM

In recent days, con artists have used the online classified site Craigslist to tout bogus charities in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, peddle fake tickets to Super Bowl XLIV in Miami and seek "deposits" from tourists looking for a place to stay in Vancouver, British Columbia, during next month's Winter Olympics.

In recent days, con artists have used the online classified site Craigslist to tout bogus charities in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, peddle fake tickets to Super Bowl XLIV in Miami and seek "deposits" from tourists looking for a place to stay in Vancouver, British Columbia, during next month's Winter Olympics.

Ron Carruthers is trying to make sense of an online scam that hit much closer to home -- literally.

Columbus police also are scratching their heads over the scam, which apparently prompted several strangers to enter a house Carruthers owns in the 800 block of Sullivant Avenue and remove everything that wasn't nailed down -- plus a lot of stuff that was.

"This is the first," said Bill Wolfert, a burglary detective with the Columbus Division of Police. "Unfortunately, it probably won't be the last."

Carruthers, 33, bought the 100-year-old Franklinton residence in March with the intention of fixing it up. He worked on it as his time and budget allowed: new doors here, a granite countertop there.

Carruthers' dream of restoring the two-story brick home took a big hit a few weeks ago when the unoccupied structure caught fire. Investigators determined it was arson.

Carruthers figured that things couldn't get worse -- until last week.

That's when someone posted an ad on Craigslist that invited all comers to take whatever they wanted from the house. Appliances, fixtures, building materials -- all free to anyone willing to cart them away.

Neighbors called Carruthers to let him know that strangers were clearing out his house, hauling things off by the truckload.

"I'm trying to get it back together after the arson, and people are coming by here and stealing everything," Carruthers said after racing to the site. "They got a lot of scrap metal. They got my furnace and everything."

Carruthers, who's living in a house he owns on the Near East Side, said he has no idea who might have posted the ad -- or why.

"Somebody put it on Craigslist so they could cover their butt," he said. "That way, when they got caught in the house, they could say, 'Oh, it's on Craigslist.' "

Columbus police detained several men but released them a short time later after concluding there was no proof of criminal intent.

"Somebody told us to come here and pick it up," said Scott Greene, one of the men tossing Carruthers' property into two pickup trucks when police arrived. "We had people here this morning tell us it was cool to get it out of here."

The men were ordered to return the property they'd removed.

That didn't do much to satisfy Carruthers.

"It's not right," he said as he watched the men stack heating ducts and other materials in an alley next to the house.